Elimari Nassim, Lafargue Gilles
Department of Psychology, Université de Reims Champagne Ardenne, C2S EA 6291, Reims, France.
Front Psychol. 2020 Sep 25;11:545632. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.545632. eCollection 2020.
Evolutionary psychology is the comprehensive study of cognition and behavior in the light of evolutionary theory, a unifying paradigm integrating a huge diversity of findings across different levels of analysis. Since natural selection shaped the brain into a functionally organized system of interconnected neural structures rather than an aggregate of separate neural organs, the network-based account of anatomo-functional architecture is bound to yield the best mechanistic explanation for how the brain mediates the onset of evolved cognition and adaptive behaviors. While this view of a flexible and highly distributed organization of the brain is more than a century old, it was largely ignored up until recently. Technological advances are only now allowing this approach to find its rightful place in the scientific landscape. Historically, early network theories mostly relied on lesion studies and investigations on white matter circuitry, subject areas that still provide great empirical findings to this day. Thanks to new neuroimaging techniques, the traditional localizationist framework, in which any given cognitive process is thought to be carried out by its dedicated brain structure, is slowly being abandoned in favor of a network-based approach. We argue that there is a special place for network neuroscience in the upcoming quest for the biological basis of information-processing systems identified by evolutionary psychologists. By reviewing history of network theories, and by addressing several theoretical and methodological implications of this view for evolutionary psychologists, we describe the current state of knowledge about human neuroanatomy for those who wish to be mindful of both evolutionary and network neuroscience paradigms.
进化心理学是依据进化理论对认知和行为进行的全面研究,进化理论是一种统一的范式,整合了不同分析层面上的大量研究成果。由于自然选择将大脑塑造成一个功能上有组织的、由相互连接的神经结构组成的系统,而不是一个由独立神经器官构成的集合体,基于网络的解剖功能结构观点必然会为大脑如何介导进化认知和适应性行为的产生提供最佳的机制解释。虽然这种关于大脑灵活且高度分布式组织的观点已有一个多世纪的历史,但直到最近才被广泛关注。技术进步直到现在才使这种方法在科学领域中找到其应有的位置。从历史上看,早期的网络理论大多依赖于损伤研究和对白质回路的研究,这些研究领域至今仍能提供大量实证研究结果。由于新的神经成像技术,传统的定位主义框架,即认为任何特定认知过程都由其专门的脑结构执行,正逐渐被摒弃,转而支持基于网络的方法。我们认为,在即将到来的对进化心理学家所确定的信息处理系统的生物学基础的探索中,网络神经科学有着特殊的地位。通过回顾网络理论的历史,并探讨这种观点对进化心理学家的若干理论和方法学意义,我们为那些希望兼顾进化神经科学和网络神经科学范式的人描述了人类神经解剖学的当前知识状态。